Ear Injuries

Falls, blows to the head, sports injuries, and even listening to loud music can cause ear damage, which can affect hearing and balance. That's because the ear not only helps us hear, but also keeps us steady on our feet.

Kids need to hear well to develop and use their speech, social, and listening skills. Even mild or partial hearing loss can affect their ability to speak and understand language, while problems with balance can influence how they're able to move and how well they feel.

How the Ear Works
To understand ear injuries, it's helpful to review the ins and outs of the ears. Basically, the ear is made up of three parts — the outer ear, middle ear, and inner ear.

Hearing begins when sound waves that travel through the air reach the outer ear, or pinna (the visible part of the ear). The outer ear captures the sound vibration and sends it through the ear canal to the middle ear, which contains the eardrum (a thin layer of tissue) and three tiny bones (called ossicles). The sound causes the eardrum to vibrate. The ossicles amplify these vibrations and carry them to the inner ear.

The inner ear is made up of a snail-shaped chamber (the cochlea), which is filled with fluid and lined with four rows of tiny hair cells. When the vibrations move through this fluid, the outer hair cells contract back and forth and amplify the sound.

When the vibrations are big enough, the inner hair cells translate them into electrical nerve impulses in the vestibulocochlear nerve (also called the auditory nerve, acoustic nerve, or eighth cranial nerve), which sends signals to the brain to be interpreted as sound. The vestibulocochlear nerve also helps with balance.